Payback (Angie Bartoni Case Files Book 13)

by Marshall Huffman

  “How is it coming boys and girls,” the captain asked.

  “We are on it. The hard part is finding a location that is realistic for a drug buy and one that offers the shooter a good vantage point and a way to escape,” Garrett told him.

  “The other thing is we can’t be too conspicuous going about it. The last thing we need is extra attention,” I added.

  “I don’t want to hear about the problems. I want to know about the solutions,” McGregor told us.

  “Boss, half the SWAT snipers are out looking for place that we can make look realistic. Krishner is on board and is as anxious as anyone to get this over with. Hell, we all are. What more can we do?” I asked.

  “What about pulling Sparks in again and putting her in the box? Maybe now that she knows we are closing in on her, she will open up,” the captain said.

  “No way. That would do more harm than good. We know she is the leak. We need her to find out about this through the grapevine and report it. I don’t want her to suspect that we are involved. This has to look like a totally legitimate narc operation from start to finish. Anything else will spook her and it will all be for nothing,” I told McGregor.

  “Do you agree?” he asked Dan.

  “I do. Totally.”

  “Garrett?”

  “Absolutely. The last thing we want is for this to look like something we cooked up. That’s why we met with Krishner away from the station.”

  “I guess this is all we can do for now but keep on the SWAT people to locate a suitable site ASAP.”

  “You know we will,” I replied.

  We filed out of his office and headed to my desk for a quick conference.

  “Captain McGreagor is wound pretty tight,” Dan said.

  “Just like us, he wants this over with,” Garrett said.

  “What about Krishner?” I asked.

  “What about him?” Dan said.

  “Think he can keep his mouth shut and not give any of this away?” I asked.

  “I don’t know for sure but I can tell you one thing. If he can’t, he is signing his own death warrant. He would be pretty stupid to say anything to anyone with his life on the line,” Garrett replied.

  “People do some pretty stupid things,” was all I said.

  ***

  We were with Mark Nelson, one of the SWAT team sharp shooters looking down on an abandoned warehouse parking lot.

  “We could have the bust take place just there,” he said pointing, “One set of cars would come in from the north over there and the others from the south. They would stop a few yards apart like a typical drug deal. There are four good places for a sniper to set up from. This is one. One level down is another. He could access the warehouse through a broken door and come up the stairs from the rear. No one would know he was here.”

  “What about the door? Wouldn’t that say ‘trap’ to a professional?”

  “It’s been off the hinges for years from the looks of it. It is still hanging by one hinge. I assume some kids or homeless people broke it down at one point. He could tell it wasn’t done recently,” Mark told me.

  “What is below us?”

  “There are two rooms that give the shooter a really good view. He could set up in either of those and make the shot. We checked, it’s only six hundred feet from the warehouse window to the place where Krishner and his people would come charging in.”

  “So they would block off the exits from the drug dealers and then round them up?” I asked.

  “That would be the plan. He would be giving orders and making himself visible like any one in his position would.”

  “Is there any other place he could shoot from?” I asked.

  “There is. It isn’t as good a site and the shot is a little trickier to make but to answer your question, yes.”

  “Take us to it.”

  We went back out of the building and across the empty parking lot. Across the street on the opposite side was a three story building that had once been an apartment complex or something like it.

  “He would have to shoot from the roof. I personally wouldn’t like it. You can get out of here in a hurry easy enough but the angle is much more pronounced and you would have to expose yourself just before taking the shot.”

  “But it could be done?” I asked.

  “Absolutely.”

  “Alright. I’ll have cameras set up on the warehouse and on this building. I’ll have them put on the roof and the two floors below and the stairwells. Do you think that will cover it?”

  “It should. I honestly don’t see him taking the shot from anyplace else. On top of that, you will know if he comes up the stairwell if you have cameras there.”

  “Alright Mark. Thank you and the other guys for your hard work. I guess it is up to us now,” I said.

  “You want us to act as backup? We can get some shooters in here as well,” he offered.

  “No, I want to keep this to an absolute minimum. I don’t want anything to spook this guy. We need to end it right here,” I told him.

  “Then good luck. Let us know if you need anything else.”

  “Will do. Thanks again.”

  ***

  “What do you think?” I asked Krishner.

  Garrett, Dan, and I were on the same roof that Mark and I had been standing on earlier.

  “I think I must be out of my ever lovin mind to go along with this,” he said.

  I didn’t say anything. What could I really say? He was right. It was high risk and he would be the one in the sniper’s sights. All we had to do was get there in time.

  “So we come in like gang busters, closing off their escape and then we start bagging them up.”

  “That’s the plan. We will know if he comes in the building and will already be on the move. We may be able to get to him before he even has a chance to get set up,” I told him.

  “If he uses the stairs and if he uses one of the rooms you guys think he will use.”

  “That’s pretty much it.”

  “Still a lot of if’s.”

  “It’s not too late to back out. All we have invested so far is a little shoe leather. We can look for a better place if you don’t like this one. Believe me, I understand where you are coming from,” I said.

  “No. This will do. It looks reasonable. I’ve seen drug deals go down in places just like this. From that standpoint it looks like a legit place for one to take place,” Krishner.

  I was starting to feel a little sorry for him. I don’t think I would be too happy if I were the one prancing around out there knowing someone wanted to take my head off.

  “So when is this going to happen?” he asked at last.

  “We have the tech people scheduled to come in tomorrow if you okayed the location.”

  “And then?”

  “We start the grapevine in motion and then the official announcement that you will be in charge of the raid. It will look legit. You lead the last big successful raid so this will seem like the natural choice. You need to object a little, not much, that you brought the last guys down. Make it look natural. It won’t matter anyway, the captain will have the final say.”

  “And that starts?”

  “Day after tomorrow for the grapevine to get going and then the official announcement will follow that.”

  “Man I just want this all over with.”

  “We all do Krishner. We have lost some really good people and there is nothing I want to do more than get this guy. I really hope we can take him alive but one thing for sure, he is going down one way or the other,”

  “You just make sure you get to him before he gets to me,” Krishner said looking into my eyes.

  “I will do everything in my power to make sure that happens,” I said, knowing it wasn’t much for him to hang his hat on.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The tech people had done a terrific job of replacing the innards of the old cameras in the building with new circuitry. They looked old and beat up but were actually
state of the art. They also added some acoustical pickups so we could hear him if he somehow avoided the cameras.

  None of the cameras had the little red recording light on that would give them away as being active.

  Dan, Garrett, and I all took turns trying to get by the sensors and cameras without alerting the monitoring crews. We failed miserably. Of course we weren’t nearly as well trained as the shooter but still, we were comforted by the fact that the coverage was so good.

  “Should we have Krishner give it a try?” Dan asked.

  “Why?” I said.

  “To show him how well the place is covered.”

  “I honestly I doubt that it will do much to put his mind to rest,” I told him.

  “I would want to know,” Dan insisted.

  “Fine. Just remember that every time we come here there is a possibility of someone getting nosey about what is going on over here. If you want to bring him over and let him try, by all means, be my guest,” I said, heading back down the stairs.

  In the end we decided to leave well enough alone and keep Krishner out of the loop.

  “Everything ready?” the captain asked when we got back to the station.

  “Yes. The cameras and sound equipment are great. None of us could get by the devices without being detected.”

  “That’s good. So are we ready for the next step?” he asked.

  “Yeah. How, exactly, are you going to do that?” I asked.

  “Garrett has a guy and he is going to drop the hint that a big drug deal is going down. It will get to one of the narc guys and then it will run it’s natural course. It will come to me and as usual I will sit down with the narcotics team and plan the appropriate action.”

  “And how does everyone else know about it?”

  “Well, at some point all plans have to become official. I will make sure Sparks doesn’t get involved but she will learn of it nevertheless. We will give her the rope to hang herself with. At some point she will try to get the plans, and that’s okay. She needs to have the information to pass along. Once she does that, we will take her down and hold her until the second part of the operation is over.”

  “Man, this sounds tricky,” I said.

  “It is. A hundred things could go wrong. Let’s just hope we have all our ducks in a row. I sure the hell don’t want to be responsible for Krishner getting shot,” the captain said.

  “Then there is really nothing else we can do until the word on the street gets back to the narcs and eventually to you.”

  “Just be ready the second it all starts to unfold,” he responded.

  ***

  I am not good at waiting. You would think a cop would be pretty good at that sort of thing, after all, stakeouts are part of our job. I, however, was as anxious about this as anything we had ever done. Maybe it was the fact that I was putting Krishner in danger. I didn’t like him very much but still, the last thing I wanted to be responsible for was him getting shot or worse, killed. I slept very little thinking through all the things that could go wrong and wondering if we had covered all that we could. I didn’t want to overlook something and later be sorry for it.

  It was another ugly day when I headed into the station. You know that song that has the line, ‘and it don’t rain in Indianapolis in the summertime’. All I can say is liar, liar, pants on fire. It rains like hell in the summertime.

  Garrett was already there when I came in. I saw two packets of coconut donuts and a Diet Coke sitting on my desk.

  “Thought I would buy you breakfast,” he said smiling.

  “Oh please.”

  “Hey, don’t be so glum. The word is on the streets and should make its way to the boys in narcotics in a day or so. By this time Friday, we should be wrapping this thing up.”

  “I sure hope you are right. This waiting is killing me. I watch brainless movies on the TLC channel until I can’t hold my eyes open any longer. I want this finished and to be able to get back to a normal life.”

  “Normal life? And what would that be like?”

  “You know.”

  “No. Tell me,” he insisted.

  “Just normal stuff.”

  “Oh that,” he said and chuckled.

  He was right. I really don’t know what a normal life was. I don’t even own a pet because I am too irresponsible to take care of one properly. Normal? Just what is a normal life, a family, a husband, even a boyfriend and someone to do things with? I am really a pretty screwed up person when it comes right down to it. I couldn’t even define normal.

  “Okay,” Garrett said, interrupting my train of thought, “I’ll tell you what normal is. Having friends you enjoy being with. Finding someone who has some of the same interests that you do. Having people you can laugh with and just be yourself without having to apologize for what you say or think. Normal is looking forward to getting off work so you can share your day with someone special and enjoying talking to them and being around them. Normal is not being afraid to have a relationship and worrying about if it will end badly. That is what normal is Angie Bartoni,” he said.

  “Then I guess I’m not normal,” I said.

  “Well you never will be unless it is what you want. It doesn’t just jump up and grab you. You have to work for it and fight for it. It has to be something you really want. If you don’t, if you always run from it, you will never know what a normal life is like,” he said and walked off to the break room.

  Whoa. That was all pretty deep for 8:12 a.m. and I still hadn’t had my Diet Coke yet.

  ***

  The next day was pretty much wasted. The only thing I really accomplished was getting all the paperwork that was still hanging over my head finished. I also took the car to my mechanic and had him change the oil and filter. It wasn’t really due yet but an oil change is a heck of a lot cheaper than an engine rebuild.

  On Wednesday the rumor mill was starting to kick into gear. I heard two assistants, how PC of me, mention something big was going to go down in narcotics. Obviously Garrett had managed to reach the right people. By that afternoon I had heard about it two more times. Dan and I talked about how we wanted to handle the situation one more time.

  Unfortunately complications arose.

  “Bartoni, it has been suggested that the SWAT team be called in as back up and I can’t disagree,” McGregor said.

  “Come on captain. You know that isn’t going to work. Once we tell them we might as well but up a billboard telling the shooter that we know he is going to be out there. He will spot them a mile away. There is nothing subtle about the SWAT team.”

  “They can dress as civilians.”

  “Oh sure, that will work. Not like those microphones stuck in their ear doesn’t give them away and talking into their coat. Yeah, real subtle.”

  “I simply can’t send you and Dan in there alone to take this guy down.”

  “We won’t be alone.”

  “Oh?”

  “We will have Brock as well.”

  “Oh well that makes it so much better,” he said throwing up his hands.

  “Captain if we have the SWAT team there we might as well just cancel the whole damn thing. He will smell them. This is what he does and he is damn good at it. He will know it’s a trap and then what?”

  “And if you can’t handle the situation?”

  “Captain,” I said exasperated.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “Yes you did. Let me ask you, have I ever not been able to handle the situation?”

  “How about the time you got shot with an arrow?”

  “I lived and we got the guys.”

  “With a little help from your friends.”

  “Fine. You go ahead and call in the SWAT team and I’ll bet you a week’s salary he won’t show,” I said.

  The captain knows that I never bet on anything, not even the basketball or football brackets that find their way around the station each season.

  “You really feel that strongly abou
t it?”

  “I do.”

  “Why won’t he know you are there?”

  “You know the answer to that. We will be operating out that abandoned semi-trailer. Tech already has everything set up. They have all the monitors in place and can cover his every move. As soon as he is inside, we will make our move and get him before he can take the shot.”

  “Just like that,” McGregor said pulling his cheeks down with his fingers and looking up.

  “Just like that. The three of us will go to his location and bring him down one way or the other. I want to take him alive if at all possible.”

  “I don’t like it Bartoni. I don’t like it one bit. This is what the SWAT team is for.”

  “Captain, I said it’s you’re call. I’ll do whatever you order me to do but not to be overly dramatic, the outcome will be on you. I’m telling you that having them involved will jeopardize the entire operation and he will slip through our fingers.”

  “Dan?”

  “I agree with Angie. The SWAT team will create problems that we just don’t need. If I can spot them you can be darn sure this guy will. We already know how good he is. He is not going to be fooled by SWAT team members in civilian clothes.”

  “I suppose you agree with them Brock?” the captain said, making sure he covered all his bases.

  “I agree that there is some risk but the plan is solid. Having the SWAT team rush the building or expecting them to get to him quietly just isn’t in the cards from my perspective. I know they are good. I’m not taking anything away from them but this guy is a professional killer. He sees things differently than we do. If we want to end this and get this guy, our way is the best way of doing it,” Garrett said.

  The captain ran his fingers through his hair like he always does when he is making a tough call.

  “I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit, but okay, we will do it your way. Bartoni, you make damn sure you get the bastard and that none of you get shot in the process. I don’t want to trade one dead cop for another. You got that?”

  “Got it boss,” I said.

  “Dan?”

  “Yes sir.”